After facing its second loss of the season, Brian Kelly and the rest of LSU football are being forced to evaluate what went wrong and how their playing differed from the previous two weeks.
Missed tackles, inexperienced players, a new secondary and a multitude of other issues contributed to the loss, but for how much longer are the Tiger’s able to use these excuses?
After LSU’s first loss to Florida State University, Kelly placed most of the blame on himself and the rest of the coaching staff.
“That falls on me to get our football team to be better in most of the competitive areas,” Kelly said. “This is a total failure from a coaching standpoint.”
Kelly even defended All-American linebacker Harold Perkins after he wasn’t as dominant on defense as many expected him to be.
“He’s playing a position for the first time, so there’s a learning curve there,” Kelly said.
Being that this matchup was LSU’s first of the season, along with the fact that Florida State was also a Top 10 opponent at the time, its reasons for losing were understood by many.
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However, as the season goes on, the Tigers are running out of excuses for their mistakes and poorly executed performances.
After LSU’s loss to Ole Miss on Saturday, the fans, coaches and team were all obviously disappointed in the overall performance shown. The Tiger’s offense scored 49 points on the road and still managed to lose to the Rebels by a touchdown.
This was the second time that the Tigers have lost to an opponent they were ranked higher than.
The game was credited with being one of LSU’s defense’s worst performances. The team missed 38 tackles, giving Ole Miss’ offense an extra 288 yards.
“We’re playing with inexperienced, young players, and that’s who we have; there’s nobody else walking through the door,” Kelly said. “These are the guys that have to play for us.”
Among the young players he was referring to, is freshman Ashton Stamps, who made his first career start for the Tigers at cornerback. Although he picked up six tackles, the cornerback struggled to defend Ole Miss’ receivers throughout the game.
But Stamps was not the only freshman playing defense.
Whit Weeks continued to be a star player in LSU’s game against Ole Miss. The true freshman made nine tackles, a new season high, with one for a loss of 1.5 yards.
Playing with inexperienced players will make it tough for LSU to consistently succeed with its difficulty of schedule. The Tigers, however, are not the only ones having to play with freshmen on the field. For example, Florida State played freshman Omar Graham Jr. at linebacker when it played against the Tigers in the season-opener.
Ultimately, Stamps was not the only one at fault for the Tiger’s loss.
“Ole Miss was better,” Kelly said. “We were in position; we didn’t make the plays that we needed to make.”
LSU’s secondary has been a touchy subject since the beginning of the season. With new faces from the transfer portal, Kelly and his coaching staff knew that it would take a while for the defensive backs to gel. New faces, though, can’t be used as an excuse for much longer.
Besides Stamps, the rest of the secondary is made up of juniors and seniors, meaning that game experience should not be an issue.
LSU’s next game against Missouri on Saturday will be the halfway point in the season of guaranteed games. Many find it difficult to believe that the defense has not found a consistent way to execute, especially considering how they played against Mississippi State, only allowing the Bulldogs two touchdowns the entire game.
With that being said, there are two sides of the ball, and the defense cannot be fully blamed for the loss to the Rebels.
LSU’s offense had a few chances to score that it didn’t take advantage of, but with quarterback Jayden Daniels’ performance, it is hard to place any blame on him.
“You could put it all on the offense… if we convert a couple of drives there in the second half, we win the game,” Kelly said. “But having said that… obviously they played well.”
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If the Tiger’s still have aspirations of going deep in the playoffs, they have a lot to figure out.
“That’s not a standard of play that’s acceptable,” Kelly said. “Expect them to come back Monday ready to make sure that they address, and we address as coaches, the things that we need to do better.”
The Tigers face Missouri on the road this week. If LSU’s defense doesn’t hold Missouri’s offense, especially its highly-ranked receivers, there’s a good chance that LSU’s hopes of playing in the SEC championship again will not come true.
Hitting the halfway point in the season, the Tigers will have to decide: Do they want to continue making excuses or make history with another championship title?
